How the Ravens changed in a week

The Ravens have lost a few players since winning Super Bowl XLVII who started at least one game last season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no Super Bowl winning team has lost more than five Super Bowl starters before the following season. Here is a look at the players who will not return to the Ravens for the 2013 season.

Jeff Zrebiec and Aaron WilsonThe Baltimore Sun

A little more than a month since the Super Bowl XLVII victory parade, the party has officially ended for the Ravens.

When they next take the field for the start of organized team activities, the Ravens will have a significantly different look from the group that beat the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, on Feb. 3 to capture the second world championship in franchise history.

Since their offseason began, they have lost eight players who were starters at different points of this past season. The exodus, which began with the retirement of center Matt Birk and middle linebacker Ray Lewis and the release of guard Bobbie Williams, accelerated over the last seven days and after free agency began.

One of the Ravens' playoff heroes is gone thanks to a trade necessitated by a salary cap crunch. One of the potential successors to Lewis and the Ravens' leader in sacks this past season both left for huge free agent contracts elsewhere. Two starting members of the secondary departed next. For most of Thursday and Friday, it appeared that safety Ed Reed, a defensive standout for over a decade, was about to sign with the Houston Texans, one of the Ravens' top challengers for AFC supremacy.

Reed left Houston without a deal, but there remains skepticism that the cash-strapped Ravens can lure him back and allow the future Hall of Famer to finish his career in Baltimore.

The Ravens have accomplished one of their offseason goals by adding size and depth to their defensive line with the additions of Chris Canty and Marcus Spears. However, roster holes remain, many of them on defense where the Ravens don't have five of their top six tacklers from last season under contract.

The Ravens will have at least 11 picks in next month's draft and the organization has prided itself of finding late bargains on the free agent market. There is a lot of offseason left.